We must believe in a big God! Children, teens, young adults must know Him in that manner! We always want the next generation to be better, to learn faster, to embrace God as early as possible.

Psalm 78

1 Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

2 I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:

3 Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.

4 We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the Lord, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.

5 For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:

6 That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:

7 That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

8 And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not stedfast with God.

This year has been filled with wonderful services, lives being changed and new opportunities to serve!

Celebrate Recovery continues with new energy to impact special needs in the lives of many. We are blessed to have such a committed team of volunteers.

Our new Grief support group, GriefShare, opened with a wonderful response. Annette Anderson has taken the leadership role for the new ministry and has already blessed many broken hearts!

The Men’s Fishing trip was special this year. The men met for a special service at Wrightsville Beach’s, Silver Gull Resort, late in the evening in the shadow of the famous Johnnie Mercer’s Fishing Pier, we honored the life of David Hensley, Sr. The men formed a horseshoe of prayer into the ocean, as we helped David Hensley honor his dad!

Ladies’ prayer groups are growing in numbers and faithful prayers cover our church families. We thank the Lord for their love for all of us!

My joy has been working with the Heritage Keepers this year. The Bible study every Wednesday morning has been a highlight of my week. The planned trip to the Ark filled the bus in just 48 hours. We are looking forward to Pastor Winston and Miranda hosting the Keepers on Wednesday, May 25th at Lake Julian for a picnic.

Just a sample of the many blessings here at our church!

You are loved,

Pastor Ralph Sexton

In Chapter 1 Haggai rebukes them and tells them to consider their ways. They get right, they get to work. These are good people who are the children of God, they seem pliable. This is one of the few places that the children of Israel actually obeyed God when He corrected them. They get to work on God’s House. God asks 3 rhetorical questions—He already knows the answer because he already knows their heart. He can hear what they are saying in their head, He can see what their heart is believing and saying…

Have you ever been ignored? How did it make you feel? Have you ever been cut-off? Has anyone ever told you something, or promised something and forgot? Life can be cruel. Life can be mean. Life can be unkind and brutal on human emotion.

It is one thing to experience these emotions with people, it’s another to feel them with God. This will require you to be completely honest with yourself internally. Has there ever been time, a place or are you in a place, where you feel like things with God has changed. Communion with Him is different, His Presence feels like it’s been relocated to a far away place and you just can’t reach it. Cant grasp it. I submit to you that this is a typical struggle in the Christian life. The feeling that God is not favorable. That his lovingkindness has ceased. That his promise is somehow not reliable. You are not ALONE!

Psalm 77:1-9